Usually two numbers
Most distressed-property assignments want an as-is figure and an as-repaired figure, and the space between them is the decision the client is actually making.
As-is is what the property is worth exactly as it stands — the water damage, the missing boiler, the copper that left with somebody. As-repaired is what it would be worth once specified work is done, which is a hypothetical condition and gets labelled as one, with the assumed repairs listed rather than gestured at.
Set the gap against what the work would cost and you have the answer to whether to repair before disposition or sell it as it sits. That is the question. The two numbers are how it gets answered.
Access decides almost everything
An appraiser has no right of entry and will not talk his way past somebody living in a house.
Occupied property is the norm in this work rather than the exception, so the honest conversation happens before the engagement: who is arranging access, and is there actually a lawful route in. Where there is not, an exterior-only assignment is legitimate — a real appraisal with a limited scope disclosed on its face — and it is materially weaker, because in distressed property the interior is precisely where the risk lives.
That trade is yours to make. What is not useful is discovering it at the door.
New Jersey’s timeline is long, so ask what date the number is for
Foreclosure here is judicial. Every case goes through the Superior Court, and the process runs long enough that a valuation can go stale before the matter resolves.
So establish at the outset which date the figure has to speak to. A current value for disposition planning is one assignment. A value as of the filing, or as of a date the pleadings fix, is a retrospective assignment and has to be commissioned as one. Ordering the first when you needed the second means paying twice, and that mistake is made before an appraiser is involved.
What this is not
It is not a broker price opinion, and the difference matters exactly when the stakes rise.
A BPO is quicker, cheaper, not developed under USPAP and carries no certification of independence. For triaging a portfolio it is frequently the right tool and I would not pretend otherwise. Where the figure has to survive being examined — a contested foreclosure, a deficiency claim, a bankruptcy schedule — it gives the other side nothing to cross-examine, which sounds like a strength and is the opposite of one.
It is also not an apportionment of blame. Market value asks what a buyer would pay for the property as it is. How it came to be that way is outside the question, and the report documents condition without commenting on whose fault it was.
For a short sale
Same first step as PMI removal: find out what the servicer will actually read.
Some want a full appraisal. Some want a BPO. Some accept only their own panel’s product regardless of what you commission. That call takes five minutes and it regularly saves the entire fee.
New Jersey specifics
- New Jersey runs judicial foreclosure: every case goes through the courts, and the timeline is long enough that a valuation can go stale before the matter resolves. Ask what date the figure has to speak to before ordering.
- Municipal registration ordinances for vacant and foreclosing properties are common here and the obligations sit with the creditor. They do not change value directly, but an unregistered vacant property tends to be one that has been neglected in other ways too.
- Occupied property is the norm rather than the exception in this work. An appraiser has no right of entry and will not talk his way past a resident.
What you receive
- An as-is conclusion reflecting the property exactly as it stands
- An as-repaired conclusion where one was requested, with the repairs it assumes listed
- Photographs documenting condition, including damage
- Every extraordinary assumption stated, particularly about anything not accessible
- Signed USPAP certification
What I need from you
- Lawful access, and who is arranging it
- Whether the property is occupied, and by whom
- Any prior inspection, repair estimate or broker opinion already obtained
- Whether an as-repaired figure is needed, and to what standard of repair